Today's work and play environments in the home and/or office are replete with numerous and various devices and appliances, hereinafter referred to generically as appliances, such as home entertainment systems, play stations, computers and surveillance equipment that people use for entertainment and work. The appliances actively interface and communicate with their users via video and/or audio displays to provide entertainment and/or to present information that they generate or receive. Behind the communication interface with human users, the appliances carry on a continuous chatter of digital communication among themselves, sending and receiving control, information and entertainment data that enable them to maintain the data processing and presentations they provide to the users
Various digital communication systems and networks supported by different physical infrastructures and standards for their operation have been developed to provide the communication needs and demands of the appliances and the users who use them. The physical infrastructures may comprise coaxial cables, twisted pair cables, phone lines, and/or power lines and/or may comprise wireless communication channels. However, new appliances and configurations of appliances are constantly offering users new features and services that generally require digital communication networks having increased bandwidth. The continual flow of new features and services and demand for increased bandwidth have generated a “patch work” of different communication systems and networks and standards for managing the systems and networks aimed at satisfying the demand.
For example, the development of flat panel LCD digital displays stimulated the development of digital video interfacing (DVI) utilizing Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) technology for high-speed transmission of uncompressed serial digital data. Different communication standards defining communication systems incorporating add on features and improvements for transmitting high definition multimedia content such as high definition video, digital music, digital photos and DVD entertainment from a Source of such content, e.g. a DVD or Set Top Box (STB), to a Sink of the content, such as a TV, material followed. Among the standards are High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Unified Display Interface (UDI) and DisplayPort.
Whereas the various multimedia communication standards and systems provide relatively high data transfer rates, they are generally configured to provide simplex data transmission of multimedia content at relatively high bit error rates (BER) from a Source of multimedia content to a Sink of the content over relatively short distances. The standards and systems generally require special dedicated connectors and cable assemblies and their transmission is generally limited to a reach of less than about 15 meters. Duplex and half duplex transmission of control data between a Source and a Sink that the standards require is performed at relatively low bandwidth of up to 1 Mbps and is generally supported by a dedicated channel separate from the channel over which the simplex multimedia data is transmitted.
The noted multimedia standards and systems do not support high quality relatively low BER full duplex data transmission that is generally required by communication networks that support information exchange between various appliances, e.g. various computer platforms, in a household or office environment. For example, uncompressed high definition video may be streamed from Source to Sink by these systems at data rates of about a gigabit per second (Gbps) for each of the red green and blue (RGB) color channels used to provide video. At these rates, substantial noise and in particular echo and near end cross talk (NEXT) may be generated that interferes with data transmission and to provide information exchange at an acceptable BER, the exchanged information must generally be protected by a relatively large coding overhead of redundant bits. The increased overhead substantially increases complexity of coding and decoding software and hardware required to process the information and thereby the cost of the systems if they are configured to support full duplex communication.
Full duplex information exchange between appliances at the home and office that are characterized by relatively low BER are typically provided by networks such Ethernet 100Base-T, WIFI, MOCA HOMEPNA or HOMEPLUG AV. The various Ethernet networks provide duplex information exchange over twisted pair wires at bandwidths that correspond to ratings of the twisted pairs. WIFI provides information exchange over wireless channels. MOCA provides communication over coaxial cable. HOMEPNA and HOMEPLUG AV support in-home networking over copper phone lines and power lines respectively that exist in the home.
The various information exchange networks do not in general provide sufficient bandwidth to support transmission of uncompressed multimedia content, which typically requires data transmission rates of about 1 Gbps for each of the R, G and B color channels of a video display. A latest Ethernet standard 10Gbase-T, while having sufficient bandwidth for supporting transmission of uncompressed high definition multimedia content, is not configured to do so. It does not provide multimedia clock regeneration or support for Hot Plug Detection (HPD), Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) or Display Data Channel (DDC). 10Gbase-T networks are designed to cope with echo, NEXT and alien cross talk (ANEXT) and comprise terminal equipment that implements relatively complex echo/cross talk cancellers and support processing relatively large error correction overheads. As a result, 10Gbase-T terminal equipment and networks are relatively complicated and expensive.
Since none of the various multimedia communication systems and information exchange communication networks provide both satisfactory uncompressed multimedia transmission and information exchange, home and office environments that provide both are equipped with a complex of different hardware and software systems.